U.N. Labor Body Urges Full Employment Drive

Reuters. 26 November 1996

GENEVA (Reuter - The International Labor Organization says the world
employment situation is grim, with one billion people, or nearly a
third of the global workforce, out of work or under-employed.

In its second World Employment Report, released in Geneva Tuesday, the
United Nations agency called on governments to drive for full
employment and denounced as "heartless and pernicious" assertions that
large-scale joblessness was inevitable in a globalizing economy.

"The current high unemployment in industrialized countries has human
costs of the utmost severity for those directly involved and breeds
crime and other social pathologies from which everyone in society
suffers," the ILO said.

"There is thus a strong economic as well as moral case for reinstating
full employment ... as a principle objective of economic and social
policy."

Among the 28 most developed countries, at least 34 million were out of
work. The average for the 15-nation European Union was 11.3 per cent,
it said.

Although job creation and unemployment had dipped in both the United
States and Britain, income disparities had tended to widen, it said.

Joblessness was on the rise in Russia and other former Soviet states
as well as in Latin America, it added.

Compiled by ILO economists and statistical analysts, the report argued
there was no substantial evidence that technological progress and
world trade liberalization were responsible for job losses, especially
in advanced economies.

Both were necessary to stimulate growth and productivity, and the
experience of dynamic Asian economies showed that "sound domestic
policies, expanding global trade and investment flows provide rich
opportunities for higher rates of economic growth and job creation,"
the ILO said.

The report argued that the way out of the jobless spiral was to
reverse the trend towards declining growth rates in major economies
over the past two decades.

Growth has fallen from a global average of over 5 percent in the 1960s
to under 3 percent now, it noted.

It rejected arguments that efforts to boost growth would inevitably
spark inflation and founder.

Lack of demand could well be responsible for slow growth in the world
economy since the 1970s, and wage inflation could be held in check if
industrial practices and labor-market regulations were designed to
support that aim, the report said.